Papal States

State · 755–1870 CE · at its largest around 1709 CE

The territories in central Italy ruled by the pope as sovereign, founded on the Donation of Pepin. They were annexed by the Kingdom of Italy, with Rome taken in 1870.

Its battles, in Battle View

Battle of Lepanto (1571 CE)

On its lands while it lasted

Coronation of Charlemagne (800 CE): Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor in St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Day, reviving the imperial title in the West.
Founding of the Holy Roman Empire (962 CE): Pope John XII crowned Otto I emperor in Rome, the conventional start of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806.
University of Bologna (1088 CE): Oldest continuously operating university in the world, traditionally dated to 1088 and famous for the study of law.
Francis of Assisi (c. 1181 CE – 1226 CE): Italian friar who embraced radical poverty and founded the Franciscan Order; one of the most venerated saints of Christianity.
Florence (c. 1260 CE): Capital of Republic of Florence (1260–1569), Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1797–1848), Kingdom of Etruria (1803–1806), and 1 more.
Dante Alighieri (1265 CE – 1321 CE): Florentine poet whose Divine Comedy, written in the Tuscan vernacular, is a masterpiece of world literature and helped establish the Italian language.
Dome of Florence Cathedral (1436 CE): Brunelleschi's dome, completed in 1436, was the largest built since antiquity and a landmark of Renaissance architecture.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 CE – 1519 CE): Italian Renaissance polymath born in Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, whose notebooks record studies in anatomy, engineering and flight.
Michelangelo (1475 CE – 1564 CE): Florentine sculptor, painter and architect of the High Renaissance. He carved the Pietà and David, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgement, and designed the dome of St Peter's.
Pietà (1499 CE): Michelangelo’s marble sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ, finished around 1499 in Rome when he was in his early twenties. It stands in St Peter’s Basilica and is the only work he signed.
Mona Lisa (c. 1503 CE): Leonardo da Vinci began this portrait of Lisa Gherardini in Florence around 1503 and kept working on it for years. It hangs in the Louvre and is among the most famous paintings in the world.
St. Peter's Basilica (1506 CE): Pope Julius II laid the foundation stone of the new basilica in Vatican City in 1506; it was consecrated in 1626. Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini all shaped its design.
Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512 CE): Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 and 1512, including the Creation of Adam. It is a cornerstone of High Renaissance art.
The School of Athens (1511 CE): Raphael’s fresco in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura, painted between 1509 and 1511, gathers the philosophers of ancient Greece around Plato and Aristotle. It is a defining work of the High Renaissance.
Galileo Galilei (1564 CE – 1642 CE): Italian astronomer and physicist born in Pisa who pioneered experimental science and telescopic astronomy. Condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, he spent his last years under house arrest near Florence.